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It was a kind of cruel event, in order to save the Misaka Sisters again, the twenty-four year old Misaka Mikoto died.
At the time they didn’t know, they thought it was only that they couldn’t find Misaka Mikoto, very possibly somewhere she was still alive and well. Suddenly thinking of the person that Misaka Mikoto had left behind in Academy City, who might come looking for her here or in other unsavory places when Misaka Mikoto failed to get back to her in a timely manner, the Misaka Sisters who were gathered together were a little worried.
As the Sister who knew best about Misaka Mikoto’s personality and life, Misaka 10032 just like that found herself being sent to Academy City’s District 7. She was to pretend to be Misaka Mikoto in order to fool Shirai Kuroko.
Standing before the door to the apartment, hesitating for a good while, even though it didn’t feel entirely right to her, in the end, Misaka 10032 still gently knocked on the door.
“Onee-sama! You…” Shirai Kuroko’s excited expression, after opening the door and seeing Misaka 10032, immediately seemed a little shadowed, but in the next second, her excitement came back, and her smile naturally became very good-looking. “Oh, this early, I thought I’d still have to wait until the day after tomorrow.”
“Well, I was just missing you a little, there’s not much else to it,” Misaka 10032 said, scratching the back of her head, before returning a brilliant smile. “In the future, I’ll go on fewer business trips, better to spend the time with you."
Stepping into the apartment, one glance, and she could see it was a very well-lived in, very warm place, in the little details everywhere were pieces of the inhabitants’ personalities. Noticing the wedding photos, Misaka 10032 thought they looked a pair of perfect lovers, very well suited to each other, worthy of envy.
The first night, it was time to go to bed, Misaka 10032 felt a little afraid, what if the other person wanted to sleep with her that way, how she was supposed to deal with it. But Shirai Kuroko didn’t really do anything, just slightly kissed her forehead, then rolled over to the other side of the bed. Misaka 10032 wanted to say something, but she also didn’t know what to say, so she obediently rolled over to the other side as well, and with some distance between them, backs to each other, they slept.
The second night, the same slight kiss on the forehead, the same rolling over to the other side of the bed, Misaka 10032 touched the spot she’d been kissed, feeling like something wasn’t right, and turned around to glance at Shirai Kuroko. Her cherry blossom hair was splayed below her shoulders, her body slightly curled in on itself, it was the look of a person who was very lonely. During the day, the two of them had been very real, they went out to see friends, they walked along the streets, natural and in tune with each other, conversing easily, teasing and smiles. Could it be that on the surface the couple looked very good together, but deeper down there was a conflict that couldn’t be said aloud? It was a little disheartening—so no matter how good together a couple was, even if it was Shirai Kuroko and Misaka Mikoto, these kinds of problems still occurred.
The third night, when Shirai Kuroko’s back was to her, Misaka 10032 didn’t hesitate, she scooched forward and gently wrapped the other person in her arms. Shirai Kuroko didn’t say anything either, her reaction was to slightly press backward into Misaka 10032, Misaka 10032 thought, this person was very warm after all, the quickening of her heartbeat in own her chest was quite natural, if the two lovers really did have a problem, if Misaka Mikoto didn’t want it or didn’t cherish it, then her kind of ‘then I’ll help myself’ attitude, could it still be called selfish?
The fourth night, Misaka 10032 learned from the other Sisters that Misaka Mikoto was already not of the world anymore. She and Shirai Kuroko lay facing each other, looking at each other, this tiny distance, it should be very easy to make gone. Misaka 10032’s heart was very heavy, full of pain, she owed Misaka Mikoto how much gratitude, and yet she had had these thoughts of betraying her, yet what was all the more painful, how to possibly tell the person in front of her the truth.
At last, she still said it.
“I’m sorry.”
“Mm, it’s fine.”
“How did you know I wasn’t Misaka Mikoto?”
“Probably when you have a very deep understanding of a person, and when the two of you have been together for a very long time,” Shirai Kuroko said. Besides the first accidental ‘Onee-sama’ at the door, she had not ever said it again. “You seem very like her, but you are not her. Who are you?”
She said that she was Misaka 10032, a clone. Shirai Kuroko was quiet for a few moments, then she went ahead and asked why a clone would pretend to be Misaka Mikoto, there ought to be a reason. Having learned of the reason, Shirai Kuroko was quiet for a few more moments, but this time, her expression had grown clear with vivid sorrow, she rolled over, and the two didn’t say anything to each other. In the middle of the night, neither of them was asleep, Misaka 10032 heard the small sobs, and she couldn’t help herself to cry a little as well, a few tears, she wiped them away.
The morning came, they got up. Misaka 10032 prepared to leave. Shirai Kuroko made breakfast, they sat together to eat, her eyes were a little red, but it seemed her mood had significantly steadied.
“Actually I think from the start I knew that something must have happened,” Shirai Kuroko said. “But I didn’t want to face it. These past few days, it must have also been troublesome for you. Thank you for letting me see her one more time, to be with her one more time.”
The funeral. The sky was an incomparably beautiful deep blue.
Misaka 10032 in the crowd wanted to find Shirai Kuroko, all those things that Misaka Mikoto hid from her before, from beginning to the end, she wanted to explain them all to her.
Two lovers happily together for such a long time, in the end, let there be no deep secrets between the two of them, that was for the best.
Misaka 10032 looked for a long time, but she couldn’t find her.
Finally, at an other, sort of farther away boundary, where there was no one else, from far away, she still saw her. Cherry-blossom hair, pink eyes, hearing the shout that even Misaka wasn’t sure where it came from except from somewhere deep inside herself, “Kuroko!” Turning around, a moment across the distance, those two people’s eyes met.
Shirai Kuroko’s lips were also moving just then, tracing out the familiar shapes perhaps reflexively, quietly, what came together to make that name, Onee-sama.